Stanley Street Merchants, Holloway, Broome House of Curry

Our restaurant critics' picks of the latest and best eats
around the country this week, including Stanley Street Merchants,
Holloway, and Broome House of Curry.

SYDNEYStanley Street
Merchants
A crowd-funded, up-cycled seasonal pop-up packed with local and
native ingredients? Stanley Street Merchants is so now that it
might as well be eating a kale cronut while twerking in a onesie
taking a selfie (correction: that's so 2013). And yet it's
strangely hard to hate - in person anyway. The welcomes are warm,
the service is sweet, and there's some genuinely likeable stuff on
the menu. West Australian chef Matt Stone (best known for his work
with eco-canteen Greenhouse) presents a menu that, though
it's sprinkled here and there with showy elements (crickets as a
bar-snack, a fried corn-silk garnish, ants on a dessert), mostly
succeeds on the strength of its down-home wholesomeness. That could
be lemon myrtle-custard doughnuts and good St Ali coffee at
breakfast, twice-cooked chicken on creamed corn with Jerusalem
artichoke chips with a side of boiled greens at lunch or, after
dark, cocktails shaken by Shady Pines alumnus Bobby Carey (we're
looking at you, Battle of Darlinghurst, and all the Bourbon,
absinthe and bitters you entail). Okay, not so much with the
wholesomeness with that last one. Anyway, they're here for a good
time, not a long time, so make the most of it, Sydney. Stanley
Street Merchants, 78 Stanley St, Darlinghurst, (02) 7901 0396.
PAT NOURSE

BRISBANEHolloway
A holloway is a timeworn path, but no-one could accuse Holloway's
owners, self-described creative compulsives Martin Gordon Brown and
chef Raffaele Persichetti, of taking the road well travelled. Their
West End design studio is best known for its custom wristwatches
and classic eyewear, cleverly made from recycled materials. In
April, they opened a BYO restaurant - and, yes, it's another
eye-catching one-off. From the shadow-throwing lampshades overhead
(made from wooden spectacle frames) to flooring fashioned from
timber slices and pebbles, there's nothing cookie-cutter about this
newcomer. The menu is short but wide ranging - handmade rags of
chestnut pappardelle, say, loaded with a gutsy duck ragoût or
Portuguese-inspired salt cod-studded bolinhos de bacalhau, or
perhaps an excellent beef rendang. Reasonably priced, the dishes
are rustic and flavoursome rather than precision perfect, but you
can taste the care and respect for raw materials with each bite.
Holloway, 69 Hardgrave Rd, West End, Qld, 0439 178 787.
FIONA DONNELLY

BROOMEBroome House of
Curry
Concrete floors. Pastel yellow walls. A three-door drinks fridge
filled with Coca-Cola Amatil's greatest sips. The frills are few at
this weeks-old Indian and Pakistani eatery, but any aesthetic
shortcomings are more than compensated for by vibrant, well-defined
flavours from the subcontinent. Don't be put off by the bain-maries
and familiar names - dishes are prepared before lunch and dinner
daily and it shows. Juicy chunks of chicken thigh loll in a savoury
yellow curry. Slow-cooking transforms cubes of goat into a rich,
fork-tender wonder. Studded with dried dundicut chillies, beef
vindaloo is memorable for its hot and sour complexity rather than
ruthless incendiary burn. Friendly Muhammad Baig is cast as both
cook and front man and does everything from serving diners to
roasting skewers of chicken tikka to order. It's a small detail,
granted, but one of the many that makes Broome House of Curry worth
seeking out when next in the Kimberley. Broome House of Curry,
Shop 23, Paspaley Plaza, 15-17 Carnarvon St, Broome, WA (08) 9192
8899. MAX VEENHUYZEN

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